Kidnapped
by xxxPenny
Summary: Levy is kidnapped and the whole guild is sent out to look for her. Suddenly Lucy and Gajeel is missing as well and Natsu goes crazy over the idea that something might have happened to her. Meanwhile Gajeel is on the same kind of hunt for his pray as Natsu is for his. Rated T for the future. GaLe / NaLu
1. Chapter 1

_This is my new project, and first chapter was finished today. This won't have a lot of chapters, I think, but then again, I could change my mind. Hope you'll like it, and I'll keep writing as fast as I can, but I warn you, I do not know when the next chapter will be out, it could take some time, I need to find some inspiration to write again. _

_Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima. _

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**Kidnapped**

"Help! Please, you have to help us!" Droy knocked down the door to main hall screaming in tears and panic.

The whole guild jolted and turned their heads quickly to see what the hell was going on. "Droy, What happened to you!?" Lucy covered her mouth as she realized that Droy was carrying a body in his arms, she felt sick when she saw the lifeless face of Jet hanging down with streams of blood running down his cheeks. "Oh my god! Someone get Wendy, NOW!" Erza ran up to Droy and helped him carry Jet to one of the wooden benches in the hall. They laid him down the same second Wendy flew inside in Carla's arms. "I'm here, where is Jet?" Wendy shouted with her tiny voice, scared and confused at the scene that met her. Droy sat on the floor, holding his best friends arm in his, praying that he would make it.

Wendy placed her hands close to his body and focused hard to rescue her friend. After a little while she let her hands down and wiped some sweat from her forehead. She offered to help Droy as well, but he told her he couldn't think about himself before Jet woke up. Wendy assured him many times that he was still alive and would make it, but Droy didn't listen. He sat by Jet and watched his chest to make sure he was breathing.

Suddenly Lucy asked "Wasn't Levy with you on this job? Where is she?" Lucy's voice was clearly concerned and she looked around hoping she would see the blue haired mage in the guild.

Droy's eyes went wide as he realized he had forgotten to tell the guild what had happened. "Oh shit! Levy! How could I forget to tell!? I'm so stupid!" Droy hit his own head and cringed in shame.

Lucy came up to him and placed a calm hand on his shoulder. "Droy, tell us what happened, where is Levy?" she was getting really worried.

"I don't know," Droy sobbed.

"What do you mean you don't know?! Where the fuck is she!?" everybody turned slowly around and looked to Gajeel who had his hand slammed on the table, panting hard from his own scream.

Droy's eyes filled with fear and he turned away from Gajeel who as walking towards him. When he reached him, he knelt next to Droy and repeated himself, "where is she?" he tried to keep his voice calm.

"She was taken," Droy muttered

"Taken? By who? Where?"

"I don't know. We were just doing a small job and these guys attacked us out of nowhere. They knocked me and Jet out first and when I woke up, she was gone." Droy covered his face and cried loud.

Gajeel stood up quickly and stormed out the door without a word. Natsu tried to grab his arm and stop him but he just shook him off. "Gajeel, wait we have to- "

"Get the fuck off me!"

"Okay, since Master is gone, we'll have to deal with this on our own. We'll split up into groups and head out to find Levy." Erza stood on the bar as the whole guild was eager to get out and find their friend. Erza split the guild up into many small groups to cover as most land as possible. "Lucy. You, Happy and Natsu; find Gajeel. Natsu you can track him down right?" Erza was in a hurry as she spoke and it wasn't a question she had pointed at Natsu, it was a demand. Find Gajeel before he does something stupid.

"I'll find him," Natsu waved at Erza and dragged Lucy out of the guild so he could track Gajeel down while his smell was still fresh in the air.

Lucy willingly followed.

It didn't take too much time for the dragon slayer to hunt down Gajeel. They found him in the outskirts of the forest, near the place Levy was last seen with Jet and Droy. He was sniffing around, trying to follow Levy's scent and find her. "Danm! I can't catch it!" he cursed and hit a nearby tree so the leaves fell to the ground.

"Poor guy," Lucy whispered next to Natsu.

"I'll go get him," Natsu declared, but Lucy held him back.

"Please let me talk to him. You'll just piss him off again."

"What? When did I ever…" He stopped himself remembering how much he loved teasing the older dragon slayer and held out his hand for Lucy to go.

She smiled at him and went down, preparing a speech in her head.

"Hey, Gajeel. Found anything yet?" Lucy came up behind him and smiled

"No, nothing. Her smell is everywhere but I can't find out where they went," he turned to Lucy with a shaking head, fury burning in his eyes.

"Don't worry, we'll find her. Why don't you come with me and Natsu and we'll search together. To dragon noses are better than one, you know," she was glad to see him smile at her comment and walk over to Natsu.

"I'll find her ages before that hot-head, but I guess it won't hurt to be more people,"

"That's right," Lucy shook her head as she walked behind him. _Always so competitive, aren't you?_

They searched until the sun threatened to dive into the ocean and let the night take over before Lucy finally managed to convince the two dragons to get some rest. They found a clearing in the forest near the place Levy's smell was still strong, hoping she would find her way back or that the attackers would return. Gajeel chopped down a huge tree and smoothly make perfect cut firewood for Natsu to set on fire. Lucy thought it was nice to see them actually working together for a change. After sitting quietly by the fire for some time Natsu fell asleep with Happy tucked under his arm. They grunted in and talked to each other in their sleep, making cute little noises. Lucy couldn't help but smile.

Gajeel looked over at her and lifted his eyebrow while chewing down some metal. "What?" Lucy huffed.

"I didn't say anything…" He shrugged his shoulders.

Lucy hadn't had time to pack before leaving so she had nothing to make time pass by faster. She wished she had gotten at least one book with her. It made her crazy to watch Gajeel looking restlessly into the dark forest, sniffing hard every now and then and getting up to sniff around just to make sure he hadn't missed something. When he dropped down next to her she couldn't take her eyes of his devastated look. His head was bowed to the ground and his black hair fell forwards and covered his eyes, much to his relief. "You really care about her, don't you?" Lucy whispered.

Gajeel lifted his head to her, but quickly looked the other way to avoid her eyes. "Of course I do, she's family, like everybody in the guild."

Lucy rested her chin on her knees that she had pulled up against her body to keep warm. She sighed, "I know. You know, Gajeel, you really have changed a lot since you joined Fairy Tail, I'm really impressed, it's not easy to turn your whole life around like that."

Gajeel huffed, and was bothered by her sudden sentimentality. "I've learned how to take care of my own, that's all. It's something I had almost forgotten how to do before I met you guys."

It was obvious that he didn't like to have this conversation, or any conversation for that matter, but Lucy felt that deep inside he really had a lot to get of his chest. He just needed someone that would listen to him and not judge his past self. "Well, I'm really proud of you. I mean, I met the guild you used to be in, and I met the Gajeel who was in that guild. It was... brutal and harsh. I don't know where you got the strength to completely turn your mind around." Lucy said

"Honestly, neither do I. I don't know what made me change my mind, I mean it was Makarov first of all, but I remember that fight I had with flame-brain over there, and well, I saw how you guys stuck together no matter what and I somehow ended up admiring that. Bing in Phantom Lord wasn't pretty, Blondie, I'll tell you that. It was awful and cold, but after Metalicana left I just lost faith in kindness, that dragon left me without even so much as a goodbye, and I felt that it was me that wasn't good enough. I guess I ended up hating everybody cause I thought they didn't find me good enough either, that why I started gaining peoples fear to be respected. I know now how wrong that was, and I'm really grateful for being allowed into Fairy Tail." He took a deep breath when he let his mouth rest and immediately regretted pouring his heart out like that, but he also felt good by getting the burden of his chest. He was happy Lucy had listened to him.

"I know how it feels to not feel good enough. The feeling of being abandoned and neglected can take you to some dark places, but I think it's important to tell yourself that it's nothing wrong with you. You just have to fight through and then suddenly it's all better. I can feel you devotion in finding Levy and I think it's great that you care so much about her, but I think it's more to it than her being family, isn't there?" Lucy picked up a stick and stuck in into the fire to stir it up, it flew millions of glows into the nightly sky and it looked like flying stars above them. "What do you mean by that? After the way I hurt her that time I have to do anything I can to make it up to her. No matter what, I owe her," Gajeel lowered his voice and sighed.

Lucy didn't look at him anymore, her eyes was locked on the dancing flames in the fire, "It's more than that, you don't have to pretend with me. You care for her in a very deep way, you're just too scared to tell her, or even admit it to yourself." She was trying to provoke him, to poke the sleeping dragon and make him realize how obvious he acted.

Gajeel looked at her in disbelieve, was this blonde really teasing him? "Even if I do care for her, I don't deserve to tell her how I feel. Not after what I did to her and her friends."

Lucy turned to him with a sharp look, "I think you're wrong, you've been trying so hard to be a good guild member and she knows that. She knows that you have changed and that you regret what you did. You can't hold on to the past anymore, Gajeel. Let it go or you'll miss your chance of happiness."

"What about you?" he asked. She was confused by his question, what was he talking about so suddenly? He saw her questioning look and figured he had to explain it to her, "I see that way you look at Natsu, don't try to deny it, a dragon senses never fail. Why won't you give happiness a shot?" Lucy was stunned at his words, how could he possibly know about her feelings, she didn't even really know about them herself. "How did you know? I haven't told anybody…"

Gajeel chuckled, surprised to see his sensitive side, eh, Lucy?

"I see myself in you, you're scared to ruin something that's already good. You want to be closer to someone, but risking to be pushed even further away isn't something you do easily. You and I are very much alike on the inside"

"It's different," she demanded

"No, it's not. You're just as scared as me."

Lucy glanced over at Natsu, reminding herself why she couldn't tell him what she felt. _How can Gajeel be this sensitive and emotional? He always seem to be so careless about everything…_

"I know. But it would change everything, and I'm not sure I'm ready to take that risk, I don't know of I'll ever be ready." Lucy said

"I know how you feel. But now, that Levy is gone i keep thinking what I'll feel like if we never find her."

"We will find her!"

"Yes, but, if we don't, I'll never be able to tell her what I feel. How thankful I am for her forgiveness. I never even told her... How amazing she is." Gajeel rubbed his hands together and shut his eyelids close to stop his eyes from tearing up, but there was more he needed to say, "I think that if you love someone, you owe yourself to tell them. You can't go around burying your feelings forever, it'll tear you apart, and that's what happening to me right now. If you want something you have to fight for it, and if you lose, at least you tried. I think the 'what-could-have-been's is what breaks us down in the long run" Gajeel continued.

"I've never thought about it like that, but even so I don't know where to get the courage to tell him. I'm too scared he'll freak out and that it'll ruin our friendship"

"If you never play, because you're scared of losing, you'll definitely never win."

That last remark stuck to Lucy's mind for the next days.

**End of chapter one**

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_So, what did you think? I know the beginning leads on to a fic with a lot of action and violence, but that's not me, yet at least. I've never written anything like that and it could take sometime before I try doing it. I'll stick to romance, or what ever you'd call it, for now. We'll see how this one turns out, please let me know what you think of this first chapter, should I keep working on it or start a new project? _


	2. Chapter 2

_So.. You remember when I said that I'd stick to romance for this fic.. yeah, I lied. I just couldn't help it, this was so fun to write! I know it's been a while since I posted the first chapter, I'm sorry, but I hope that it'll be worth it. The romance will return after this chapter, I promise! _

_Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about this, was it good or bad? _

_Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima._

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**Kidnapped**

As daybreak came and the first ray of sunlight found Natsu's drooling face, he jumped up from the moldy ground and threw Happy into the air and watched him save himself just before he hit the ground. "Natsu, stop doing that! I hate waking up feeling like I'm having a heart attack!" he complained and crossed his arms, but Natsu wasn't paying attention. He had just discovered that both Lucy and Gajeel were gone. The fireplace had been put out with water and there was no sign of the dragon and his blonde companion anywhere. "Where the hell are they?" He spun around a few times, looking as far into the forest as he could but still he could not see them. There were no prints for him to follow and the flowers spewing out all kinds of different smells were blocking his nose for any kind of human smell. "Luuuuucy!" He yelled as loud as he could, he sharpened his ears for a few seconds but when he heard nothing in reply he really started wondering if they had left him behind. "Why would you do that to me?" he sobbed, feeling sorry for himself. "I can't see them; the trees are covering the ground." Happy said on his way down from the tree tops. "I don't understand… Why would they leave me?" – "Us" Happy added- "We have a much better chance at finding Levy with my nose! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU GUYS!?"

Previous that night.

Lucy wakes up by the crackling sound of footsteps in the dark forest behind her. Her eyes shoots open and she regrets leaving her keys in her bag on the other side of the fireplace. She sees Natsu sleeping, but she awaits the situation. She tilts her head upwards to see Gajeel on the ground next to her. His eyes are open and he holds his finger over his lips. _Is it the attackers?_ Lucy wonders, she hopes. Gajeel lifts his body up and gives her a signal to stay down. He gets up without any sound and tip toes on his masculine body in the direction of the sound. "Iron Dragon's Sword!" Lucy does not dare to turn around, it's quiet. Minutes pass by and Gajeel has vanished into the darkness. Lucy doesn't hear any sounds, not even her own breathing. She squeezes her eyes together and slowly sits up. She crawls quickly and quietly over to her bag and digs up her beloved keys and breathes out hard in relief that she has them in her hand. She looks around, but Gajeel is gone. _Where is he? _She sits still for a while, analyzing the situation. She figures it's best to wake up Natsu, he will know what to do. But before she is able to reach his soothing warmth Lucy feels a pair of big rough arms around her waist and a soaking cloth is pressed against her mouth. Her eyelids feels heavy and she knows her eyes are about to roll back. She reaches out her arm in a weak attempt to grab Natsu, but her body is shutting down too quickly. Her keys slips out of her hand and lands with a *clink* on the ground. Her sight goes blurry and a blanket of black silence covers her completely. The sweet-ish smell of chloroform is the last thing she registers before passing out.

"Natsu!" Droy and Jet yelled in union when the dragon slayer kicked opened the door to the guild. "Did you find her!?" they said with big smiles filled with hope. The smiles soon dropped when they took a closer look at Natsu's face. "What happened? Where are Lucy and Gajeel?" Erza said firmly. Natsu took a deep breath and told them how he had woken up alone in the woods. He had been searching all day for his two teammates, but no luck. He had finally given in to Happy's suggestion of going to the guild for help. He was only hesitant to the idea of going back because it was more bad news and it would make everybody even more worried than they already were, he didn't want that. He wanted so badly to find them, but he wasn't stupid either, he knew when to ask for help.

"Good job, pyro, you were supposed to find someone, not lose even more people," Gray huffed. "Shut up bastard, this is serious. It wasn't my fault!" Natsu sneered back. "Both of you stop it! We need to act quickly. It's possible that Lucy and Gajeel were taken by the same people that took Levy, you said you camped near the place she went missing, right?" Erza said and Natsu nodded vaguely and tightened his fists. He felt so guilty and it drove him crazy knowing he wasn't able to protect his teammates, especially Lucy. He knew Gajeel could take care of himself, but if something happened to Lucy… his fist instinctively lit on fire and the fire crackled around his hand. "Natsu, we will find them." Erza knew Natsu well enough to know that he was blaming himself, but at the same time she knew that this way he would try even harder to find everybody. She knew he had been determined on finding Levy, but now that Lucy was gone, he would really put all of his energy into finding her. And maybe finding Lucy meant finding Levy, she could only hope. "Ok, let's go. Jet and Droy you stay here, if anybody else comes back tell them what happened and tell them to keep an eye open for all three." Erza equipped and stormed out of the guild with Gray and Natsu following close behind her. "By the way, it's good to see you up, Jet," Natsu yelled over his shoulder and smiled. "Please find them!" Jet waved back.

"Hey! Blondie, wake up!" Gajeel whispered and tried to poke Lucy with his leg but he couldn't reach her. His hands were tied over his head and attached to the stone wall. "Lucy!" he called again, louder this time. "Hmm…" Lucy mumbled. She opened her eyes slowly and saw the moldy floor beneath her, then the stone walls. Her eyes felt heavy and her mind was foggy, she felt like throwing up but she was able to keep it down. She tried to take her hand to her head to feel the pounding but discovered that her hands were tied behind her back. "Wh-What..?" She looked around the room, where was she? She saw Gajeel across the room, standing up with his hands above his head tied with a chain of metal. "Gajeel..? What's going on?" She asked with a husky voice. "Are you ok?" he was clearly concerned, but mostly relieved that she had woken up. "I'm fine, but where are we? What happened?" She was coming to her senses, but had a headache that made her eyes flinch from the gloomy paraffin lamp in front of her. "I don't know. I remember going into the woods to check out that noise, but someone jumped be and drugged me before I saw who it was, next thing I know, I wake up here," he explained. Lucy looked at the chains holding him up, "why don't you just break the chain? Aren't you the iron dragon?" She said, annoyed that he hadn't done it before. "Do you think I'm stupid? It's not iron, it's chrome, way stronger than iron, I couldn't break it even if I tried right now, I'm too hungry." He huffed, embarrassed to confess that he had a weakness. "But seriously, where are we? I don't understand!" Lucy swung her head around in a frantic movement, "Where is Natsu?" she exclaimed with a hint of panic to her voice. "Don't know, haven't seen him around here. I don't smell him either, maybe he got away, I don't know," Gajeel tried to break the chains again, just in case. It was still no use, his powers were at its lowest, he desperately needed to eat something.

"So this is where you woke up?" Erza inspected the camp thoroughly, but didn't seem to find any clues on what had happened. "Yeah, I didn't smell anything when I woke up though, the flowers interrupted my sense of smell," he complained. "Useless dragon," Gray rolled his eyes. "You wanna go, droopy-eyes? Come at me!" Natsu smashed his forehead onto Gray's and growled while his hands crackled from fire yet again. "I'll kick those flames right of you, pepper breath!" Gray challenged. "Stop it!" Erza shouted, "This is not the time for fighting! Can't you guys just try to focus!?" She pulled both of their heads apart and pulled their hair until they whimpered in pain. They both fell to their knees and looked at each other in shame over not taking the situation seriously, "Sorry…" They said.

"Natsu, you still have Lucy's bag?" Erza held out her hand. Natsu nodded and gave it to her. He had been carrying it since that morning, hoping that Loke would come out to talk to them, maybe he had sensed something? "Are we even sure they were taken? They could've just gone to get some water or something and gotten lost." Gray tried to sound positive, but even he heard how stupid it sounded. "Lucy would never leave her keys behind, and they weren't even in her bag but on the ground. She would never leave them on the ground, something must've happened to her," Natsu sighed. He suspected that Gray had said it to cheer him up, but honestly it had just reminded him of how useless he had been. Why hadn't he woken up? Why hadn't he saved them? Erza saw his expression and padded his shoulder gently, "It's not your fault, Natsu. You can't think like that. We'll find them, I promise."

"Open the Gate of the Lion! Leo!" Lucy ordered, but Loke never came through. She tried again, louder this time, she really needed him to hear her. "I thought he could pass through on his own?" Gajeel questioned. "He can, but he might be busy or something, I can't normally reach him without my keys, and since I'm not in any life threatening situation, he won't just pop out for nothing." Lucy looked around the room to try and find some other way of escaping; the only thing in the room was the paraffin lamp before her. "I have an idea!" Lucy reached her leg out and caught the handle of the lamp between her toes and dragged it over to her. The rope that was tied around her hands had a loose end that was about a meter long and Lucy felt really smart when she grinned over at Gajeel, waiting for him to catch on. She tipped the lamp over on the rope and prayed it would light up. "Are you crazy? You'll burn your hands off!" Gajeel was shaking the chains holding him up trying to make a point. "I deal with Natsu's flames on a daily basis, I think I'll be alright," she winked over at him. As the lamp fell to the floor, the fragile glass broke and the paraffin inside the container spilled over the rope, letting the fire eat its way up to Lucy's hands. The knot untied and Lucy shook the feeling back in her hands and smiled triumphantly. "See?" she walked over at Gajeel and was trying to open the lock on the chains when she heard footsteps coming closer. "Shit! Hurry up!" Gajeel rushed. "I can't open the lock it's too hard!" Lucy whimpered while putting all of her powers into pushing it open, without much luck. Soon a black shadow emerged behind her.

"Well, well, what so we have here?" a dark man's voice sent shivers down Lucy's spine and she turned her head slowly to meet the tall dark figure leaning over her. The man suddenly grabbed Lucy by her hair and pulled her back to lean against his body. "Let me go!" Lucy shrieked by the pain and tried to dig her nails into his hand to make him release his grip. "Hey, let her go!" Gajeel's eyes were burning red and he pulled his arms repeatedly to break from the shackles holding him in his place. "Don't think so, buddy. I kind of need you guys," the man sent Gajeel a wry smile before pulling Lucy across the room and tied her hands behind her back again. He forced her down on the floor and put handcuffs, which were bolted to the wall, around her tiny ankles. "Need us, for what?" Lucy panted. The man lifted his sleeve and a crest came to sight on his lower arm, "You see this crest? It's from the guild Silver Cape, a dark guild that runs this country's largest business in human trafficking. You two are the unlucky ones that get to be sold, but that means money for me, you see?" he laughed a loud echoing laughter before he knelt down before Lucy with a grin. Her face was frozen in panic and she had no words to say. She did not want to believe what this man had just told her. "You're…" she gulped hard, "Selling us?" Her stomach twisted inside her. She knew there had been some problems in Fiore lately with young teenagers, mostly girls, disappearing without a trace, the police suspected human trafficking, but there were never any leads to support it. Now she and Gajeel were in the middle of it all. "Like hell you're selling us!" Gajeel suddenly snapped and almost ripped his arms off trying to break free, a killer instinct had taken over his mind and he knew who his pray was. But the chrome would not break. Lucy had a blank expression on her face, her emotionless voice made Gajeel even crazier, it sounded like she had given up when she muttered the words: "Who are you selling us to?" The man was still on his knees in front of Lucy and he took her chin in his rough hands and lifted her head up to meet his eyes, "I will surely get a nice amount of jewels for a beauty like you." He leaned his face closer and buried his nose in her cold cheek. She fought his firm grip without luck. "Don't touch her! I'll kill you!" Gajeel growled. The man rose to his feet and walked over to the iron dragon. "I don't know about you, but a dragon slayer it's something you come across every day," he chuckled. "How did you know that?"

"You tried to kill me last night with that sword thingy of yours. I almost lost my head asshole!"

"I'm sorry... that I missed," Gajeel grunted back.

"You can't just sell people like that!" Lucy suddenly screamed. The man turned around again and shrugged his shoulders, "But you're wrong sweetie," he licked his lips, "just the other day I sold a pretty little bluenette to a business man up north. She was a mage too," Now, Gajeel was really about to lose it, "WHAT!?" his howl made the entire room shake beneath his feet. "You give her back right now or I swear I'll rip you head off!" Gajeel felt the bolts in the wall giving in and the crackling sound said the same. He smiled. He pulled even harder and finally the bolts loosened from the wall with a bang. He saw the man before him drop his jaws and starting to move his feet backwards, but Gajeel followed him with the intention to get some answers, "Now you're in real trouble boy!" the dragon swung the chains up over his head and smashed them down on the man in front of him, making him fall to the ground. "Tell me where she is!" he screamed. Lucy sat quietly watching Gajeel while he chugged down the chains. His body started glowing and he smiled a devilish smile, "Now that I've eaten, I'm all revved up!"

**End of chapter two**

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_Wow that's some serious rage you've got there, Gajeel. I feel kind of sorry for that other guy, but not really. Don't mess with Levy! Please leave a comment, I need feedback on this chapter! Thank you for reading and thank you to all of those who've already clicked favorite or follow, and for all the nice reviews! I love it! And you! _


	3. Chapter 3

_I know I set this out to be mostly a GaLe story, but honestly I keep falling back to write about NaLu.. hehe, sorry about that. It'll be more GaLe later on I promise! I've had a hard time putting this fic together, that's why it's been a while. I'm sorry about that too.._

_I might take a break from this fic and start a new one soon, but I don't even know yet.. ahh.. I need some inspiration! Feel free to leave a comment or PM me if you have any ideas or wishes for what you want to happen next in this story, or even for an entire new story for that matter! All ideas are welcomed with much gratefulness! I reply to all PM's and some reviews !_

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**Kidnapped**

Gajeel carried Lucy in his arms out of the dark basement and up to the fresh summer night. Lucy clung around his wide neck and took a deep breath when they reached the air above ground. "You don't have to carry me, I'm fine," Lucy smiled and wiggled her legs trying to get down.

"You seem tired, and I don't mind," Gajeel said firmly as he walked down the road.

"You're an amazing mage, Gajeel. I mean, you beat up all those guys on your own. I'm sorry I wasn't of much help, I feel so useless without my keys," Lucy muttered the last words slowly. Back in the basement there had not been just the one guy, but six more guys in the floor above them. They had heard the ruckus and stormed down to find Gajeel untying Lucy. Gajeel had beaten them all to a pulp within minutes, but it cost him almost all of his magical power, still he insisted on carrying Lucy. She let him so that they could get the hell out of there.

Gajeel carried Lucy for about half an hour before she convinced him that she could walk on her own. When he finally put her down, they had reached a crossroad; there was a sign that pointed north and south saying: North - Dillen, South – Retter.

"Wow," Lucy sighed, "We're that far from Magnolia?" Gajeel sat down on a rock and looked to Lucy,

"How far away are we?" Lucy sat down next to him and rested her face in her hands, "About nine hours by train," she exclaimed. "Wow that far, huh?" Gajeel suddenly felt broken, now they were even further away from finding Levy, she had apparently been sold to a man up north and they had been taken even further south in Fiore.

"At least we made it out, right?" She tried to cheer him up, but knew how disappointed he was.

"We should get to a town and tell the police about those guys back there, those ropes won't hold them forever," He stood up and helped Lucy to her feet.

"Don't worry, it'll be alright," Lucy padded his back and directed him to the town up North, Dillen.

They arrived in Dillen about two hours later, both exhausted from the trip over the mountain and from the lack of food and water.

"Do you have any money? I'm starving," Gajeel turned his pockets inside out and looked over at Lucy with a hopeful face.

"Sorry, no. But, I have an idea!" She clapped her hands together and smiled eagerly. "Why don't you go down to the Royal Army's office down that street and tell them about what happened so they can go and get those guys, I'll meet you back here in an hour," Lucy started skipping down the street, it made Gajeel relieved to see her in such a good mood, _she really is stronger than she looks. _

Gajeel walked slowly down the road that Lucy had pointed out to him and kept his eyes open for the Army's office. When he found it he stomped inside and grabbed hold of the first person he saw dressed in official clothing.

"Hey, I'm here to report something, I need to see however is in charge around here, it's urgent!" He demanded.

"Easy there," The soldier scoffed Gajeel's hand off of him and pointed him down a long corridor. "The head of this unit is on the third left."

Gajeel hurried down and didn't even bother to knock on the door, he had no time to waste right now.

"What can I help you with?" a young looking man stood up behind a huge wooden desk and lowered his glasses as a greeting, he reached out a hand as a sign for Gajeel to sit down, but he didn't.

"The Silver Cape guild, that has a cabin up in the woods near Retter, they have kidnapped my friend and sold her, why haven't they been taken in already, huh? My friend and I just escaped from that cabin, and now there are seven mages from that guild tied up right over this mountain. I want to know how this could happen! You need to find my friend!" Gajeel didn't know which story to tell first, but the head of this unit, called George M. Velho if you were to trust the name plate on his desk, suddenly spun around on the spot and sent a team to the cabin, he reached out a hand to Gajeel in gratefulness. He explained how they had been trying to get those guys for the past months, but they had never had any real evidence. Now they had witnesses and the Army now had a chance to find the leader of the guild and arrest him, all they needed was to interrogate the guild members.

Gajeel exited the office quietly, satisfied that the guild members would be arrested, but angry that Velho had just given him his condolences when it came to Levy, he had said that the Army had no way of finding her, but they would try and force the guild members of Silver Cape to tell them where she was. Velho had also told Gajeel to stay in town for a few days so he could serve as a witness during the interrogation. It drove the dragon crazy to be forced to stay, but he knew it would be so much easier for the Army to lock up Silver Cape if they had a witness, and Gajeel wanted them locked up so they could never do what they had done to Levy ever again.

He met Lucy back where they had parted almost precisely one hour later. She stood and waited for with a big smile on her lips.

"What are you so happy about?"

"My dad used to do a lot of business in Dillen when I was younger, I went with him here a few times and we stayed at a hotel down the main street. I went there and luckily the manager remembered me and said that we could stay in a room for free since he and my dad were pretty close, the business is slow here in the summer anyways," Lucy started walking down to the main street and was really proud of herself for what she had accomplished. _Turns out that having a businessman for a father wasn't only a bad thing, _she smiled.

"We're looking for a blonde celestial mage, a big guy with long black hair and a lot of piercings on his face, and a tiny bluenette who uses script magic. Have you seen, or heard about, anyone like that around here?" Gray was in a dark pub doing a round to check if anyone had seen his missing teammates.

"Sorry, no," the old man slurped down his beer and turned away clearly annoyed to be interrupted. Gray walked out into the daylight and saw Natsu sitting on a bench with his head in his hands; his legs were shaking with impatience. "Anything?" Erza asked. Gray shook his head and nodded over at Natsu, "How's he doing?"

"Not good, he's really going crazy," Erza was getting worried for the dragon slayer. Natsu had not slept or eater for the last two days, he had barley even spoken to the others, including Happy.

"I'll go get something to drink, you want anything Natsu?" Erza asked.

Natsu waved his hand dismissively and kept shaking his feet as if he wanted to get up and run until he found his friends. "Be good to him while I'm gone," Erza pointed at Gray. She knew Natsu really couldn't take any jokes from the ice mage right now. Gray huffed at her and went over to sit next to Natsu. He really didn't want to say anything, and he felt that is was nothing he could say, still he felt that leaving Natsu alone to his guilt wasn't too good for him in the long run.

"We will find them, I swear," Gray whispered and laid his hand on Natsu's shoulder.

"We should've found them already," Natsu yelled and pushed Gray's hand away, "Lucy doesn't even have her keys! What if something happens to her, what do I do then?" His voice was husky as he tried to suffocate some sobs that where threatening to escape his mouth.

"She's most likely with Gajeel, and he's a strong guy, he can protect them both, you know that!" Gray tried to sound cheerful and positive for Natsu's sake.

"What if they got separated or something happened to him, huh? What then? I know Lucy is strong, but without her keys she really might be in danger, and I would never forgive myself if something happened to her!" he couldn't hold it in anymore, the sobs where to pressuring and he knew he had lost the battle to hide them. He turned away from Gray and tried to muffle the sounds with his scarf.

"Natsu…" Happy whimpered, "Do you really thing that something that bad happened to Lucy?" he sobbed along with him.

"Hey guys! I think I have found something!" Erza came running towards them waving her arm up high with a paper in her hand. Natsu leaped up from the bench and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. "Really?" he exclaimed.

"It says here that a gang of mages from a dark guild where arrested by The Royal Army this morning in the woods between Dillen and Retter," Erza stumbled along the text to find what had caught her eye in the first place. She felt Natsu's warm breath on her neck as he nervously waited for directions or answers. "Here it is! The head of the Dillen department George M. Velho says.. blah blah.. mhm… Yes! A man came in and reported the incident claiming that he and a friend had been held captive by the dark guild Silver Cape, but managed to escape. The man is going to serve as a witness and has been ordered to stay in Dillen during the early stages of interrogation!" Erza took a deep breath after the long sentence and waited for Natsu and Gray to react. "So..? Is it them?" Gray broke the silence, but according to Natsu's face there was no mistaking it, it was them. "How did they get to Dillen?" Erza questioned for a second before being dragged along by Natsu to the train station. This time Natsu could barely wait to get on that hell ride of transportation.

"I have to admit it Bunny Girl, you really saved us this time," Gajeel wiped his mouth clean with his sleeve and let out a satisfied moan.

"Well, I'm glad I could be of some use," Lucy smiled and leaned back in her chair. They had just finished a meal at the hotel restaurant after Lucy had been begging Gajeel for hours to eat something. She had told him that she knew how much he wanted to find Levy, but he was no use when he was out of power. He had unwillingly followed her with tightened fists.

"How are you holding up?" Lucy tilted her head and softened her eyes as she spoke.

"Not too good, I really wanna get going right now! Who knows what terrible things that might have happened to Levy already? I'm gonna kill those bastards if I ever get my hands on them again!" he slammed his hand on the table with red fury burning in his eyes. It was clear to Lucy how much he worried for Levy, she was just as worried, but she was kind of worried for herself as well. Without her keys she was pretty much defenseless and going north to find Levy could mean bumping into a lot of scary guys. She would only be in Gajeel's way if he had to protect her as well.

Lucy bowed her head and Gajeel saw what she was thinking. He knew that face, he had seen it in Levy before. When they had been going to Tenrou Island Levy had had that same look. That was when Gajeel had first felt the need to prove to her that she was more than good enough. He had just volunteered to go with her as assistance really, he knew she was both strong and smart enough to do it all by herself, but it didn't end up like that. Well, it wasn't Levy's fault.

Gajeel cleared his throat and turned his face to Lucy's watery eyes. "I see what you're thinking. You're thinking that you shouldn't come with me to find Levy without your keys cause you feel weak,"

Lucy nodded slowly. She knew it, Gajeel had felt the same thing, of course he had! She was useless. Utterly useless.

"I won't be able to find her alone, you know," he lifted his brow and revealed just a little hint of a smile.

Lucy sat up in shock, had he really just… Gajeel was… so sweet. Lucy smiled back at him and let out a little chuckle. "That's nice of you to say Gajeel, I know I'm not at my strongest, but-,"

"Stop, I mean it. I can't do it without you. We're a team right now, and we have to do this together. I won't return home to Magnolia without Levy,"

Lucy nodded eagerly. She wouldn't let Gajeel down. She would fight even without her keys. For Levy, she would fight until the end.

Suddenly, what Gajeel had said the other night at the camp fire popped into her head, about how never playing the game because you were scared to lose would definitely not make you the winner. That went for both Levy and, well how is Natsu doing anyways? Lucy hadn't had time to even consider how mad he must be when they hadn't been there that morning. _I hope nothing bad happened to him, he would probably be able to take care of himself though. He must've been scared when he saw that we were gone, I hope he's ok…_ Lucy's mind drifted away slowly, she didn't even notice how fast she fell asleep.

She didn't wake up for hours, and when she finally opened her eyes she was back in the hotel room, Gajeel was sleeping loudly on the couch, he had probably woken her up with his snores. Lucy rubbed her eyes and rolled over to see the clock on the wall above the door. "3.45, have I really slept for that long?" she mumbled, _wow, it's hot in here, I need some air…_ she quietly removed her clothes and tied a robe around her body before walking across the room to open the glass door to the little porch.

"So, where do we begin?" Erza held a map in front of her face and narrowed her eyes in the dark to see clearer. It was way past midnight and the train had just arrived at Dillen Station.

"Don't know, I've never been here before, but it looks like it's quite the big city," Gray roamed over the map with his sleepy eyes and could barely even focus. Natsu had made it impossible for the two other mages to sleep on the train with his disgusting noises and pained moans.

"Maybe we should check into a hotel, get some sleep and start looking for them tomorrow?" Happy yawned hopefully as he landed on Gray's head with a pop.

"No! We have to find them! We can't stop now, we just got here!" Natsu still fought the urge to hurl but his feet were at least on solid ground.

"Happy's right," Erza said firmly, "We know that the possibility is big that it's them, and we also know that they were ordered to stay in town for the next few days, we should rest. We've been awake for a long time and we'll do better tomorrow if we're fully charged," Erza and Gray both agreed that it was for the best, and started walking down a small alley to find a cheap place to stay. Natsu followed unwillingly, but kept his nose up in the air just in case he might catch the familiar scent of…vanilla, and… strawberries! _Lucy!_

Natsu spun around so fast he barley even registered that his feet where moving away from Erza and Gray. He knew he had smelled her. Her smell was unmistakable. He stopped a few times just to make sure he was on the right track. The light summer breeze sent playful whiffs of Lucy all over town but that didn't really help the dragon's nose. _Dammit! _

The night wasn't nearly as silent as it would be in Magnolia at this time. The tall buildings stretched up towards the black sky and echoed sounds of loud shrieking voices between narrow alleys. Natsu ran around like a wild animal in the dark streets, he was hunting and was on the right track for his pray.

The scent he was following was getting stronger by each step and his stomach tightened with a burning happiness. He stopped, looked up and that's when he saw her. Right there, on the balcony of a yellow-painted hotel in the main street.

"Lucy," his voice had a hint of disbelief in it. "Lucy!" he screamed with watery eyes and a shaky voice.

Lucy had seen him. She had heard him scream her name and she was following his movements as he ran towards her. Her heart skipped a beat every time he called for her. "Natsu.." she whimpered. _He came for me? All this way… _

"Natsu!" she waved her hand up and held the other over her chest to calm her pounding heart.

Natsu leaped up from the ground and caught the rail on the balcony in his hands. He jumped over it effortlessly and stood silently before Lucy as he caught his breath. He panted hard as a huge grin appeared on his flushed face, "I found you!" he chuckled "I knew I would!" he walked over to her and laid his arm around her petite body as if he wanted to protect her.

"You had me worried sick, you know that?" he tightened his grip around her. "I'm sorry," Lucy whispered into his chest.

"I would never have forgiven myself if something happened to you Lucy. You can never disappear ever again!"

"I'm fine, I swear," Lucy reached around him and connected her hands together in a tight and warm hug.

"I missed you so much.." Natsu sighed

"I missed you too,"

"I'm never taking my eyes off of you ever again!"

The relief Natsu felt in that moment was indescribable and he honestly never wanted to let his Lucy go. When she finally released herself from his warm hug she reached up to his face and gave him a big kiss on his cheek.

"What happened to you? Where have you been? Where is Gajeel?" Natsu had so many questions running in his head but before he could ask any more questions Lucy laid her finger over his lips.

"I'll explain tomorrow, you look exhausted so let's just get some sleep for now."

"Erza, Gray and Happy are also in town, but I'll find them tomorrow. You're right, I'm really tired,"

Lucy took Natsu's hand in hers and guided him inside to the hotel room. The first thing Natsu registered was the loud snoring and the smell of cold iron, _Gajeel, thank god he's ok. _He landed on the bed with a crash and fell asleep almost instantly, with his arms wrapped around Lucy.

**End of chapter three**

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_Leave a comment to let me know what you think, please ! :)_

_Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima! _


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